BEAR GRYLLS ON WHY YOU ALWAYS NEED A FRESH CHALLENGE

When I was a young man, my grandfather gave me some good advice. It's hard enough in life, he said, to get where you want to be even when you're crystal clear where that place is. It's near impossible to get there if you don't know where you're going.

He was so right. Humans are like sailing ships. If you take the rudder off a sailing ship, it doesn't perform well. The sails flap about, the ship can't build up any speed and it goes nowhere. But if you put a rudder on it and turn it towards the breeze, things are very different. The sails fill up. Everything goes taut. There might be a bit of strain, but suddenly there's also direction and speed.

We're the same, and challenges are our rudder. Without a challenge, we're at the mercy of other forces. We get saggy and drift around, and often we even get blown backwards. Wherever we end up, it's rarely anywhere meaningful.

As humans, we perform best when we have a focus. I see it all the time in the wild. The storms, the struggles and the steep mountains always bring out the best in people. Yes, there might be some pain and blisters and hurting, but like the struggle, they develop us. And, as is so often the case, what's true in the wild is true in many other arenas.

These challenges don't have to be world changing. You only have to look at my show The Island With Bear Grylls to see that. It is so tempting for the contestants to simply lie there exhausted and do nothing, especially when they're tired, starving and dehydrated. When you're dealing with life or death, however, the only way to survive is to set yourself goals, no matter how small. It might just be building a roof for the shelter or collecting firewood. But by managing these bite-sized challenges, you eventually arrive somewhere meaningful and that's how you move from surviving to thriving.

I've written before in this column about regarding failure as a stepping stone to success. It's worth repeating in this context because accepting life as a challenge means accepting the possibility of failure. But remember: the only time we really fail is when we stop trying. We need to embrace failure and keep out of our comfort zone - or comfort pit, as I prefer to call it. The ride will be bumpy - if it's not, your challenge isn't significant enough - but the best shock absorber on a bumpy road is a good sense of humour and a bloody-minded resolve to keep going.

We run a series of adventure races and it's amazing to see how people love to get out at the weekend and do something physical, muddy and challenging - me included. It pushes us, shocks us, scares us but ultimately leaves us empowered, proud, laughing and tired. To me, it's proof positive that people like to have obstacles to conquer - but not just physical challenges. These principles cover so much of life. In your relationships, in your work, in your studies, in all these arenas: aim high, accept that it's not going to be easy, relish the struggle and go for it. Blaze a trail towards those obstacles, and remember: if you've set yourself a real challenge, and you're doing it right, there should only be one path, and that's the one behind you.